Jacob Rees-Mogg is caught up in a cronyism row after the partner in his investment firm was suddenly handed a peerage and made a government minister.
Dominic Johnson co-founded Somerset Capital Management with the business secretary – both making many millions from the firm, including from the pound’s plunge after the Brexit vote.
Now Mr Johnson has been appointed a minister in both the Cabinet Office and the Department for International Trade, an announcement slipped out on the government’s website revealed.
The move comes amid controversy over the cabinet’s close ties with City financiers, after the chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng celebrated his mini-Budget with hedge fund managers.
The package handed huge gains to bankers and financiers, some of whom also made fortunes by short-selling the pound as it fell sharply in value again.
Mr Johnson has donated huge sums to the Conservative Party and was its vice-chairman between 2016 and 2019.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, Labour’s shadow international trade secretary, said: “After crashing the economy with unfunded tax cuts for the very wealthiest earners, and lifting the cap on bankers’ bonuses, it beggars belief that the Conservatives have appointed an unelected asset-fund manager to the government who just happens to be a crony party donor.
“As millions of working people face agonising choices about what essentials they can afford, Liz Truss – once again – shows she is not on their side.”
Sarah Olney, a Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, said: “Sadly, this is exactly what we expected when Liz Truss appointed Jacob Rees-Mogg to run Britain’s business policy: jobs for Conservative party pals while slashing taxes for big banks and billionaires.”
The government statement said: “Dominic Johnson CBE was appointed a minister of state jointly in the Department for International Trade and the Cabinet Office on 2 October 2022.
“Dominic has spent the last 25 years in entrepreneurial, international finance,” it said, adding: “He set up various dotcom business in the early 2000s and ultimately moved into asset management in 2001.”
Mr Rees-Mogg stopped receiving wages from Somerset Capital Management in 2019, but remains a shareholder, understood to be in the low teens.
The staunch Brexiter is believed to have pocketed at least £7m in dividends from the firm since the EU referendum in 2016 and used to be paid about £15,000 a month from the firm on top of his pay as an MP.
Mr Johnson has been appointed after the long-standing chief executive of Legal & General turned down a job as minister for investment.
Sir Nigel Wilson decided that he would rather stay at the insurance, savings and pensions company that he has been running for more than a decade, The Times reported.
